CASTLE ROCK — If attorney Harvey Steinberg plans to explain away DNA linking a former Denver Broncos cornerback to the alleged rape of a woman in 2010, he sure didn't say how he would do it during opening statements Tuesday in the sexual-assault trial of Perrish Cox.

Cox, who was cut by the Broncos before last season, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman who was passed out in his apartment and says she doesn't remember being raped.

A DNA test confirmed Cox impregnated the alleged victim, and other tests showed conception occurred around the time of the alleged assault, according to court documents.

But Steinberg said in his opening statement in Douglas County District Court that the evidence will suggest Cox didn't assault the woman.

Steinberg said Cox was out with his girlfriend and the alleged victim that night, along with Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas. Steinberg said the alleged victim was interested in Thomas.

In fact, she testified that she and Thomas were kissing on the drive to Cox's Lone Tree apartment after partying at a downtown Denver nightclub over Labor Day weekend in 2010.

The two were also fooling around inside Cox's apartment. The last thing the woman says she remembers is kissing Thomas on an inflatable bed in Cox's living room while Cox and his girlfriend were in a bedroom.

Thomas said in court documents that he then left because the woman had passed out.

"At no time did Mr. Cox show any interest in her romantically," Steinberg said.

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"The DNA is not the entire picture," Steinberg said.

The alleged victim was the first witness to take the stand. She said she had a high tolerance for alcohol, so the four drinks she consumed that night would not have made her pass out and that's why she thinks she may have been drugged.

But when she awoke the next morning, "I felt funny," she told jurors.

She never got tested for a date-rape drug, however, because she waited too long and a date-rape testing kit wasn't used on her.

The alleged victim teared up on the stand when she recalled seeing the ultrasound that confirmed she was pregnant, a pregnancy she would later terminate.

Near the end of the day, prosecutors played an audio tape of a phone call in November 2010 between the alleged victim and Cox that was recorded by police.

In the recording, Cox repeatedly denies having sex with her or assaulting her.

"Just have an abortion," Cox tells the woman on the tape. "Why would you keep it? If you don't know whoever it is, that would be like a logical (solution)."

Cox was arrested the next month.

Cox is charged with two counts of sexual assault. If convicted, he faces two years to life in prison.

The jury comprises seven women and six men, one of whom is an alternate. One member of the jury is African-American. About 100 potential jurors were screened Tuesday.

Prosecutor Bob Chappell noted that Cox had repeatedly denied he assaulted the woman even though the DNA evidence suggests otherwise.

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